Keeper's View

We absolutely love staying in Keeper's View and look forward to our next visit.

The home is perfect and well-maintained and the view and location are superb! I am happy for you to publish the review above. Below is information for improvement that should not be publicly published. We hope this will help you in maintaining your properties and service. A couple issues... it was hard to figure out how to connect to the wifi and there were no written directions on how to do it. Also, the dishwasher seal came off when we opened it so we weren't able to use it and there were a few missing/burnt out lightbulbs. Our biggest challenge was getting a hold of someone to help with issues. We called and left a message about the wifi and never got a response. Then we called about the dishwasher and it took several tries to reach someone and all they told us to do was to send an email. It is really important to be able to speak with someone about issues when at at rental and we hope this process can be made better in the future. Thank you so much! We loved staying at Keeper's View!

Lovely location with a wonderful view of the castle.

There were a few niggles during our stay however: I spent quite some time trying to fix the WiFi, the dishwasher seal kept coming away and missing some kitchen items (eg measuring jug). The listing initially sounded like this is a house, but it's a upstairs maisonette that sleeps 6. However the lounge seats 5, and the kitchen seats 4 so people will be shuffling round if you are a party of 6. As a couple, it was a comfy and enjoyable stay aside from the niggles.

The apartment is in a great location and the views fantastic.

The instructions for the heating were not very clear and we couldn’t get the underfloor heating to work. Some of the switches are behind cupboards/bookcases so that didn’t help and trying to locate them wasn’t easy. Thankfully, the wall heaters were sufficient. Three two seater sofas would have been better. A few niggles but otherwise a lovely comfortable apartment

Couldn't have a better position and view of Bamburgh Castle.

Absolutely loved it. Kitchen well equipped. Having ensuite bathrooms great - showers easy to use and plenty of hot water. Would have liked higher armchairs in conservatory to see better. The guest information for parking needs updating as it has wrong number where to park. Also, the numbers on bays need to be highlighted in a different colour. Overall a fantastic place and value for money.

Lovely clean apartment close to the beach and the centre of the village of Bamburgh.

Covered parking spot was extremely useful there and gated so it enabled us to keep all our beach stuff, wetsuits and paddle boards behind the car. My only challenge to the description is If it’s just a base to sleep and be out all day great for six and comfortably sleeps six, but the living area Suits 4 adults if you visit during wet, winters weather and spending more time indoors

Keepers view has without question the best view of Bamburgh castle.

The private parking is a huge bonus for Bamburgh. A few minor maintenance issues re cracks on the woodwork and rusty shaver socket in the downstairs bedroom en suite plus the toilet flushing needs adjusting (keeps running after flushing)

Fabulous location, stunning views, 5 minute walk from the beach or pubs, well equipped, amazing memories, would love to go back one day.

We had such a lovely stay in this stunning property in beautiful Bamburgh.

It's even better than the photos in real life, it's perfect. Super clean, very nicely furnished and comfortable. Plenty of hot water, great showers, comfy beds and a very well equipped kitchen and that view is incredible! We really loved sitting in the sun room watching the house martins swoop around during the day and bats at night and of course seeing the stunning sunsets! It was a very short walk to the beautuful beach. We had lovely meals in the Middle Inn (vegan option available), the Copper Kettle tearooms and enjoyed the butcher and the deli next door to it. We had lots of lovely trips, very much recommend Billy Sheils boat trip, from Seahouses, to land on Inner Farne, Lindisfarne, Craster (with walk to Dunstanburgh castle), the Grace Darling museum, St Aidan's church and of course Bamburgh castle, all so interesting. Slightly further afield is the wonderful Cragside. What a wonderful holiday, so sad to leave!

Property overall very nice and spacious with a superb view of the castle.

But 2 broken toilet seats and a squeaky en-suite door on arrival, took 5 days to repair, despite promising same day if we left the key in the key box which we did. One toilet seat was never repaired at all. A dirty conservatory window (the main reason for the booking), likewise took 5 days to clean. Worst of all the electric gates malfunctioned on Thursday at 10.30am, locking us inside with our car, which was promptly reported to Sykes. Promises kept coming that ‘someone was on there way’, but no one did come, and no updates or call-backs from Sykes at all during the day - in fact the telephone operators, appeared totally disinterested in the issues and were vague throughout on any fixes. We expected the gates to at least be fixed by the change-over day, Friday, but when we went to leave at 8.30am (to beat the traffic build-ups around Newcastle), we were disappointed to find the gate still didn’t work (and the office didn’t open until 9am even on a change-over day), and we, and other apartment guests, were trapped until 10.30am, when a window cleaner finally arrived to release us. It took him all of 5 minutes for him to locate the key, and turn the gates into manual operation, which we could have done ourselves if someone told us where the key was located. The pedestrian electric gate we never did learn how to operate effectively, despite again reporting the issue to Sykes. Other holidaymakers advised of previous problems here also. We believe these electric gate issues, as well as being very inconvenient to us, were probably also a pretty serious safety issue if any emergency arose. Sykes told us it was a separate maintenance company responsible for fixing these problems, which is fine, but it was Sykes we rang to report the problems, and Sykes that then notified the maintenance company, and we don’t understand why even if the maintenance company were non-responsive, why Sykes couldn’t have been proactive in chasing them, and keeping us informed of any developments (of which there was little). They never did, except once on Friday morning, when we said we couldn’t vacate the flat in time, because we couldn’t get out! Due to the level of the problems, we wrote to the Sykes MD (but with no response), and also to the Sykes ‘Customer success’ team (i.e. customer services), who again just passed the buck to the maintenance company, with some pretty erroneous statements in terms of the response times - we have the call logs, as will they, to show the actual response times! They even used a ‘no-reply’ email address, which increased the frustration! We have holidayed with Sykes for decades, with many very successful holiday transactions, but I’m afraid this example was not one of them.

The property was beautiful and comfortable and perfect for the wedding of my son on the cricket pitch in the shadows of Bamburgh Castle.

The problem I have is with Sykes. I spent 2 days and multiple attempts to contact them when I was asked to arrive a day earlier on the Thursday to help. Eventually I had a response from Sykes which said it might be possible to go Thursday to Thursday instead of Friday to Friday if there wasn't a booking the previous week, which seemed very reasonable. A week before the wedding I tried again to contact Sykes. The only way I could get a response was to pretend to be currently staying at a property. This time they spoke to Northumberland County Cottages, their partner, and allegedly the owner who said under no circumstances could I change. Something about a cleaning schedule which is nonsense because it would have had to be ready for the previous Friday in case they got a booking. I paid a premium rate for the property, nearly £2000 because obviously I needed to secure the exact dates for the wedding. I'm inundated with offers for the same property at £890 from Sykes which is very galling. I have run Airbnbs myself and I would have provided much better service and more flexibility. It was almost impossible to get any kind of response to my queries and the utter inflexibility of Sykes makes me very hesitant to ever use them again.

Beautiful property in beautiful location.

Everything about the place was great. Note: there is absolutely NOTHING there other than one bin bag and one loo roll for each bathroom - a welcome pack with tea, milk, soap, washing up liquid etc would have been much appreciated as local shop is very poorly stocked

We had a great break at Keeper's View.

We loved relaxing in the sun room with the view of the Castle and watching the cricket and croquet games, and the location was fantastic with the beach only a few minutes walk away. Although we'd asked for the King sized bed to be divided into a twin this wasn't done, but we found plenty of extra bedding in the cupboard so it worked out fine. E all thoroughly enjoyed our stay, and everyone is already keen to return!

Beautiful property with a wonderful view.

Everything is pristine and well maintained. Just two minor niggles: we couldn't find a cafetiere and the tea pot is only big enough for three cups (and there is no tea cosy!) Apart from that, first class!

After thinking that Northumbria cottages would be a reputable company and able to support their customers, I am now throughly disappointed with what they can offer.

If it wasn't for the fantastic view from the property I would have left and demanded a refund. The property was not cleaned apart from bedding and towels. We had to clean bathrooms, the kitchen, dust the surfaces, clean windows. The dishwasher was left full and dirty. The seal on the dishwasher came off which we had to clean and fix I had to purchase cleaning products to do all this. There were broken items which we didn't have to use such as a lamp, fans, a blind some lights which we were able to do with out. I have been offered 10% of my next holiday. I have not got the confidence to use your company again so this is not worth anything. Very disappointed indeed.

Other than the main entrance to the building and the staircase, which don’t give a good first impression, we thought the flat was very comfortable and extremely well equipped - and, of course, the view is spectacular.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Keeper’s View.

Overall we loved our time in this property.

It’s in a great location and the view is awesome. The property is very well equipped. The closest grocery store is 3 miles away so bring everything you need. The only negative is the conflicting instructions for finally leaving the property. It caused concern for us and should be clear from the beginning. This was eventually remedied by calling Sykes for clarification, who, incidentally, were very helpful with any questions we had. .

Having had a fabulous time at Keepers View, we wanted to stay longer!

I did notice quite a few scuff marks on the walls in the stair well and shared areas, just needs a bit of attention to maintain the high standard of this wonderful property. Thank you.

The gate for pedestrians operated to come in but not to go out.

We had to use the main gates to go for a walk. These gates stayed open for some time therefore security was reduced. The dining table could only be used for 4 because of the size of the kitchen. Luckily there were only 2 of us the kitchen was well equipped. The beds were comfortable. The lounge chairs were very uncomfortable and lacked support. The heating would have taken a long time to get warm according to the instructions. Fortunately it was warm when we were there. The parking place number in the instruction binder was 8 it should have been 4. The main instruction binder was not in line with the 2 lots of instructions hanging in the kitchen. 1 lot was for arriving and the second lot was for leaving. We would not book this apartment again.

Beautiful property in a fabulous location.

Light and airy and very well maintained.

Beautiful apartment with a wonderful view of Bamburgh Castle.

We had a lovely holiday and would love to come back and stay here again.